Traveling Across the US in a Camper Van: Our Second Day…

Kyle and Eli before we hit the road
Kyle and Eli before we hit the road

…No really some background to our mental state on the second day.

We were on the road again and aiming to get to Uncle Bill’s in St Louis by Saturday. The rain from Hurricane Lily had not slowed down much…

Wait, I think this is the appropriate time to fill you in on the events of the week so that you may get a smidgen of background as to our mental state at this point. We are at Friday Morning on our second travel day. On Tuesday we had to be completely moved out of our Herndon, VA house.

Dave and I were up the entire night before prepping everything and completing the packing. Because this move was on our dime, we wanted to save some cash. Was it worth it? I still do not know.

Moving Day: There was a brief mishap with the moving truck. We had it scheduled for a 9AM delivery. The moving company thought it was scheduled to come at noon. We got everything squared away and the movers and truck both showed up at the same time. Gratefully, at 9AM, Dave’s brother and father came to help and stayed until the movers left. Thanks to love and kindness of my good friend, Stephanie we were actually able to complete the move. Stephanie took Kyle for the day.

We spent Tuesday night at Bill and Stephanie’s and decided to have Eli, our light sleeper sleep in the same room with us. I will make this short. Eli did not sleep.

Wednesday we had the closing from HELL. Our buyers were relentless. To paraphrase, US: “We will happily give you money for the burned out light bulbs. We did not notice they were burned out.” THEM: “No as a show for the disrespect you have displayed, we want you to crawl naked to Home Depot, purchase said light bulbs, continue your naked crawl to your house and screw the light bulbs in with your teeth.” Even after the lawyer assured me that I was a good person and recommended that we just leave, the beating us to a pulp continued. I am happy to say that it only took the Title Company Nine days to wire the money into our account. (Note my sarcasm).

With little sleep, a displaced life, and the rain pounding down on us, we were back to Friday morning.

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Face Plants

Kyle, Virginia
Kyle, Virginia

Two weeks ago we took the kids to feed the ducks at Lake Anne. Lake Anne is set around a 1970’s planned community. Consequently there are lots of heavy geometric cement seventies art and architecture. Kyle was fascinated with the fountains and sculptures and wanted to climb on everything. So he did. He climbed to the top and shouted, “Mommy, I am on top of the world. I am on top of the world.”

As the night was winding down we passed the “on top of the world” sculpture. Kyle wanted to climb again. Dave had him, I had Eli. After a few minutes of climbing, I said, “Let’s go,” and Kyle headed down my side of the sculpture. Kyle was coming fast and I couldn’t reach him so I said, “be careful.” As the words came out of my mouth Kyle was pivoting and pivoted himself off of the sculpture. I helplessly watched him fall and “smack.” It was so loud. Kyle landed on his face. There was lots of blood, loose and chipped teeth. He kept saying, “Mommy I need you.”

A frantic ride to the ER, including lots of blood and screaming, some lost car keys, and a pair of irrational parents set the situation up right for a direct entry to see the Dr. (no wait in the ER waiting room). Kyle was ok. The Dr. said landing on his face was a good thing. His face acted as a crumple zone. Just a “head injury” they said. “what?” That’s what they called it. In essence he had a concussion and a very swollen and banged up mouth.

Fast Forward.
This past weekend: Wolf Gap Camping Ground on the border of Virginia and West Virginia. Dusk. First night as a family sleeping in the Eurovan.

After four face plants, more blood, and many tears we had to enforce the time-out ultimatum. “Kyle walk, don’t run. If you run, you will have to go to time out in the stroller. Yes, strapped into the stroller.” He persisted so we reminded him about the hospital. He was with his friends, Quinn and Max. Nothing could stop him. Thankfully, we all survived. What to do with our exuberant little two year old boy?

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Welcome!

Getting Ready for our Camper Van Journey
Getting Ready for our Camper Van Journey

We are leaving in two-ish weeks. You can always find us here at CrazyUS. We’ll keep you posted on our crazy adventure. Post, email, or just browse by to see what we are up to. We would love to hear from you.

Things have been crazy of course. We just had a yard sale this weekend and are winding things down here in DC. I still can’t wrap my head around all the packing. Thankfully Dave is anal about keeping us organized and together. He has color coded stickers for all of our boxes. What would I do without him.

Oh, yes, and here are some pictures of the two little boys that make it all worth it. [pictures to come].

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How to Pack?

The camper van in small town Nevada 2003
The camper van in small town Nevada 2003

We have less than three weeks until we hit the road. Less than three weeks until we are out of our house. We have been packing and packing and then I look around the house and it seems as if nothing has changed. What have we packed? How are we going to pack all of our stuff? How are we going to fit everything into our moving van? HELP! I am paralyzed.

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About Crazyus (Our first About Page)

Us 2005

We are the Adams Family. I, Beth, am the prominent author of this web site. Don’t be surprised if on occasion Dave posts. I love it when he posts. We have two beautiful sons, Kyle and Eli, whose escapades consume many of the words on these web pages.

Of course this site fits into the whole Mommy Blog Genre. Why wouldn’t it? I am a Mommy. I would like to think that I am hilariously funny and totally clever. The truth; I am often overly-dramatic and PMS-driven. Remember that these are only glimpses into our life. I have kept a journal of sorts since I was a young girl. My Mom used to sit on the couch and write in her diary, and I think because I wanted to hang out with her, I started keeping one as well. (There were six kids in our Brady-Bunch/children-of-divorce, style family. One-on-one time with my mom was hard-to-come-by.) That said, I am glad for this record-keeping habit (Obsessive Behavior) she has instilled in me.

After leaving Northern Virginia, taking a year-off to travel in our VW Eurovan Camper (the initial reason we began Crazy Us, we landed back in Salt Lake City just a few blocks from where we lived before, a house that every time we drive by, Dave, me or one of the boys points out, “That is the house where Kyle was made.”

Our first web site (1998)(which we had no idea was a web log because I don’t think there was such a phrase at the time) was the now defunct, davyandbeth.com. I know, how cute is that–choke–cough–gag. We set the web site up for our wedding, and because we were planning a big move to Boston at the time, we wanted a central way of keeping in touch with everyone.

Dave and I are both Internet geeks and have worked for various startups, and we also worked for other companies in an Internet related capacities. In 1997 Dave (and, I guess you could say, me too) began Os News (a technology blog, if you will), which is his current primary occupation. You can read more about OS News and his career path, here.

Dave grew up in Rockville and Gaithersburg, Maryland. I grew up in Minnetonka, Minnesota. If you know anything about the Minneapolis area, specifically the western suburbs, more specifically, Lake Minnetonka, no, I did not live on Lake Minnetonka. I came from the other side of town.

I suffer from a huge chronic case of The Grass is Always Greener Syndrome, which has lead me to deep dissatisfaction with almost everywhere we have lived, only to leave these places and mourn them like a lost loved one, dreaming about the day I will return. Seriously, ask Dave. It can get really bad, especially during P.M.S. and pregnancy. (Consequently, I can’t stand Utah right now.)

I hope you enjoy this web site. If you don’t, well, the Internet is a big place.